Rate My Comic-Book-Style PseudoScience!

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Okay, so as every person who’s ever seen a single post of mine knows, I play roleplaying games.

I’m working on a game I’m running now - and want to provide pseudoscientific backgrounds for the principles of Time Travel, and Dimensional Travel.

So, first, we must envision the universe as a timeline, stretching out to infinity. And Imagine the parallel universes, branching off from the main universe at different point, creating something that, viewed externally, quite resembles a tree.

The “null” space between timelines is the 5th dimension, “Trans-time.”

This becomes important in a second. The first method for “time travel” the scientists of the campaign will discover will be based on the “principle” of gravitic induction. (Yes, it’s time for technobabble.) Essentially - gravity warps spacetime. A singularity like a Black Hole can warp it to an extreme degree. If one wishes to travel in time, then a small ring of small black holes is required - or something that generates an equivalent gravitic force - a force intense enough to “peel back” the skin of space-time at the center of the ring - the more gravity you have, the farther back you can peel the skin.

Now, the ability to travel to a parallel dimension is much easier to come by. It relies on a similar notion - except instead of gravity, which scientists haven’t learned to manipulate so well, it requires magnetic fields. Essentially, it is discovered that a powerful magnetic field produces a small vector in the fifth-dimensional direction. It warps the trans-time barrier around a universe in a small way. By increasing the intensity of the field, that vector grows larger - the warp grows more pronounced, until finally, the barrier bursts, creating a ‘wormhole’ through which one could ‘slide’ into the parallel world. Perhaps one with no shrimp. Or nothing but shrimp.

Of course, these wouldn’t need to be the only ways to achieve these effects, just the first that the scientists of the campaign discover.

So how’s my pseudoscience? :smiley:

2

Sounds plausible, except that instead of “peeling” the skin of space-time, gravity would more likely bend space-time to bring two points on the timeline closer together, then you could somehow ride the gravity wave to the desired point in time.

But, really, I think it would be more realistic to go to a strip bar.

See, during my brief career as a stripper, I developed this theory.

After the intitial trip to the bank to stock up, dollar bills never actually enter or leave a strip bar. There is a constant circulation of bills as customers come in, break tens and twenties, use them to tip the dancers, who then trade them in for tens and twenties. On a busy Friday or Saturday night, this circulation creates a vortex which would make time travel possible.

If you want to travel forward in time, you come in between about ten and midnight, when the circulation is bar ->customers-> dancers. At the time of shift change, there is an imbalance created because of the higher percentage of dollar bills in the possession of the dancers, and then the direction of circulation reverses itself to dancers -> bar-> customers. This is when you want to come in to travel backward in time.

3

…

You’re a massage therapist, an ex-stripper, and a comic book reader? blink, blink

thud
…

I’m sorry, I seem to have fallen over. Was I saying something?

4

The comic book science seems pretty solid, despite failing to mention the role of unstable molecules. Asbestos Mango’s idea about riding the bent gravity waves does appeal to me though. What sort of transport are you using to do this? Or do you just strap a big-ass magnet to your chest and concentrate?

Also, CandidGamera, I think you’re surrounded. I’m a female comic fan, and I’ve danced onstage in my underwear (occasional stripping was involved, without actual nudity. I’m a *Rocky Horror * refugee.). I give great massages and uh, other stuff. :wink:

My husband is an even bigger comic fan (and longtime gaming dork) than I am. His mother’s favorite story about him is from his early childhood when they were stationed near Washington, DC. They took him to the Smithsonian and he was entranced by Lynda Carter’s *Wonder Woman * costume, which was on display there. He kept wandering back over to look at it and swore then, at age 3 or 4, that he would marry the woman who could fill out that costume. He did, too, though I have a larger cup size. :smiley:

Just doing my part to improve the reputation of geek girls worldwide.

5

You don’t have to improve their reputation in my mind. It’s just… just…

:: snaps ::

Dammit, why are the good ones married?!!

6

Amen, brother. Well, at least the good ones within a hundred miles of my location.

7

Mayhap I’m a bit too literal when it comes to this sort of thing, but how exactly do you get a ring of black holes - presumably interacting gravitationally - without them all falling inward to the center and joining into just one really big black hole?

8

Are your parallel dimensions alternate histories, or just “somewhere other than our universe”?

9

Allow me to interject a bit of real science here. According to Stephen Hawking, a rotating singularity may form an event horizon that is donut shaped rather than spherical. An object could theoretically pass through the center and out again, assuming it could withstand the intense tidal forces, since it wouldn’t actually cross the event horizon.

Getting back to the comic book Super Whiz Bang Science, at this point you fly your spaceship through the donut hole to produce the time travel effect.

10

Or, you could use a slightly different tack for the dimentional-crossover…

If science fiction has taught me nothing, it’s that all matter in a universe has a natural “resonance frequency.” (It’s pseudoscience technobabble, so you can call it “Quantum resonance” or “Sub-Atomic resonance” or “[just some jibberish] resonance,” depending on which sounds better.) And each universe/alternate timeline/whathaveyou has a unique resonance frequency.

Now, assuming you can create some kind of controlled space-time disruption; and that you can temporarily change (or maybe just “cloak”) the resonance frequency of an object’s matter to one of your choosing (either if you know or are guessing the frequency of the universe you’re trying to get to, or if you’re working blind, or even if you change the frequency by accident), all you’d have to do is generate said distortion, change the resonance frequency of the subjects you’re transporting, and have the subjects enter the distortion—and they’ll just kind of “fade” into the target universe.

Think of the distortion as being like a children’s pegboard—full of shaped holes made for shaped blocks, no block being able to pass through any hole but the one matching it’s own shape—and think of the holes as being gateways to separate universes. Now, suppose you were somehow able to temporarily squeeze a star-shaped block (your test subject) into a triangle shape (changing it’s “resonance frequency”), just the right size as a triangle-shaped hole in the board. You could then push the block through the board, and it’d spring back into it’s original shape. At which point, someone on the other side of the board could press the block back against the board—but, if they don’t squeeze it into a different shape, the block couldn’t go anywhere but through it’s own own hole…to it’s “home” universe.

So, in your story, you have a few different ways you could play with this…you could make it so the travelers have to change their resonance frequency back to it’s “normal” state before they could return home (not to mention opening up another space-time disturbance), or you could have their frequency return back to normal within a few minutes, and all they’d have to do is enter another disturbance to pass back into their home universe. You might have the the different universes “synched up” with each other, spatially, so if you passed through a distortion on the steps of the Lincoln memorial on Universe A, you’d find yourself on the exact same location and date in Universe B. Or, you might have the universes “un-synched,” so that if you passed through the distortion in a lab in Universe A, you might end up 60 miles above the center of Vienna, in 1705—and if you entered the distortion in a lab two miles away from the first one, you’d just find yourself 60 miles above Vienna, but two miles away from the city center. Or, you might have it so that the spacial distance between points of departure in Universe A might result in a difference of when you’d arrive in Universe B. Or any number of factors might be combined to determine where, when, and at what speed you arrive in a different universe after passing through the distortion. (It might be funny to have someone try to travel back in time exactly six months, and having it work—only to end up in the exact same space as the place he left from, just in a different time…a time when the Earth is on the other side of the sun, the sun has backtracked six months in it’s orbit around the center of the galaxy, etc.)

Sorry…didn’t mean to ramble. And frankly, due to the lateness of the hour, I’d say that there’s a good chance that what I typed just looks deranged and incoherent. (Well, y’know, more deranged than sci-fi pseudoscience is supposed to look, even normally. :wink: )

Anyway, good luck with the tampering in god’s domain,
Ranchoth

11

Generally, alternate histories. Dimensions like ‘the ShadowRealm’ or ‘Hell’ would be sub-dimensions attached to the main one - easier to reach.

12

I’m hurt that you didn’t e-mail me for advice.

First, I recommend the D&D book Chronomancer. Much of the stuff, being fantasy rather than SF, would have to be changed or ignored. Some of the material (the concept of entering a plane called Temporal Prime, and travel between timelines come to mind) would fit very well. For good examples of pseudoscience White Wolf’s Mage The Ascencion has the Sons Of Ether. They’re an inspiration to mad scientists everywhere.

Second, just how easily is travel through time and between dimensions meant to be? Does it require huge amounts of money and a massive lab full of cutting edge technology and staffed by teams of brilliant scientists? Or can a lone genius develop and build a portable device? Is there a ship or chamber that travels with them? Or is the main device left behind and a small remote unit serves to bring you home? How accessible is this technology? Will the players have one of a handful of devices in the world? Will every government and major university have one? Will it be so simple and cheap that hobbyists are building the things in their garages?

Third, actual advice. Steer clear of real science whenever possible. The origins of Spider-Man, the FF, and the Hulk look ridiculous today. There’s always the risk some new discovery will do the same to you. There’s also the risk that a knowledgable player will find all kinds of technical errors in an explanation. I dislike the idea of peeling back the skin, what’s wrong with the classic ‘bending the fabric of spacetime’? Gravitic Induction. Marvelous term. Remember that gravity is a bit strange in reality (There are hypotheses that it is so weak because much of it is lost in 7 or so spatial dimensions that we can’t perceive). Is it necessary that magnetism be responsible for transdimensional travel? Why not have gravity responsible for both? One variety of fancy machine works through Gravitic Induction, providing motion forward and backward along the time axis. The second variety works through Gravitic Synchronization, providing motion sideways to the time axis of another dimension. This allows the discovery of transdimensional travel to be made by accident, when a Gravitic Induction Chronal Displacement Device malfunctions due to experimental modifications, power fluctuations, human error, contamination, or computer virus. This would also be the springboard for an adventure. The players, known chrononauts, are called to help. “No, the professor hasn’t been displaced in time. He hasn’t been teleported to another point in space either. Our analysis of the accident shows that he has been transported entirely out of our spacetime. He is, to be brief, in another dimension. We’ve sent probes after him. They reveal that this other dimension conforms to the physical laws of our own. That the atmosphere is safe and breathable, and that temperature and climate are safe for humans. But, to return a subject to our own dimension, they need this unit. We need you to explore this dimension, find the professor, and return.”

13

What about “Temporal Resonance” for each alternate reality/timeline? Here’s the idea:
With the creative application of Gravitic Induction, you can alter the “Temporal Resonance” of each alternate reality/timeline point. The closer you can get the temporal resonances to each other (like a musical frequency, or radio frequency), then the easier it is to move from point A to point B - like frequencies on a radio dial. In fact, HEY! Your “trans-reality teleporter” could operate similarly - you just “dial it in” to get where you’re going…and if you know the “TempRes” of your own universe, you can always go back to it…

…uhm, how am I doing??

14

What if your machine gets stuck between frequencies? I suppose frequencies would be quantisized at some level, but it isn’t completely beyond supposition that there would be ‘unoccupied’ locations on the dial, or that a specific resonance would be exactly between two occupied frequencies. You could have some fun with creating ‘gateways’ that are locked into in-between spots and can independently tune bits of themselves so a platform emerges completely in one specific universe, goes ‘in-between’, and reemerges completely in the other universe.

(And, of course, all of this mention of tuning makes me hark back to 1920s-style Science Fiction. “Tune in the Multiverse with your Farnsworth Gravity Radio!”)

You could imagine a unification of gravity and the electroweak force into a single, malleable energy that has a bizarre set of properties. Essentially, you could posit a way to convert electricity into gravity and vice-versa, and matter directly into either. You could carve the continuum with gravity lasers and wall off areas with gravity barriers (like controlled event horizons that resist penetration instead of encouraging it). Turning gravity directly into electromagnetic radiation could open the way to generators orbiting black holes and possibly inducing a spin in the singularity, creating a new wormhole.

15

Love some of the additional suggestions.

Doc, I didn’t email you for advice because I don’t know you well enough to bug you about random stuff for a roleplaying game.

I have Chronomancer - it is definitely one of the better D&D supplements of its time.

To address some points - I’m using Magnetics for transdimensional because it’s easier for us in the real world to manipulate magnetic fields than gravity fields, so the imaginary leap-forward in technology is smaller.

In the future of the campaign, one expects the Unified Field Theorem to allow the use of any manipulated universal force to allow the effects.

I used the ‘Frequency’ notion in my last superhero game - but in an offbeat way. Time and Dimensional Travel could be achieved by manipulating the vibration of gravity waves - first achieved through the application of very precise sound. In other words, the air was vibrated, and the gravity produced by its mass was vibrated in turn.

Of course, this was a 1930’s game, and the scientist in question was Nikola Tesla, so it all seemed entirely appropriate. :wink:

To answer Doc’s point two - it’s meant to be difficult. Really difficult. Time travel impossible for the moment; dimensional travel in its proto-infancy - except for the occasional cross-dimensional accident. I honestly envision the physical set-up of a dimensional portal looking something like the StarGate from StarGate. The PCs will not be stepping into a parallel Earth for quite a while. First, they’ll be visiting a strange Warehouse containing artifacts that look like they’re from our history, but with a twist… ‘Truman Defeats Dewey’ on a newspaper headline, held up in a photo by a triumphant Dewey, et cetera.

Warehouse 23, in other words.